


The Bizarre Town of Derry, Maine

by theliteraltrash



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Child Death, F/M, Gay Richie Tozier, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Post-Canon, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Screenplay/Script Format, Shane Being an Asshole, Twitter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 11:55:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20582096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theliteraltrash/pseuds/theliteraltrash
Summary: A string of tragic coincidences, a conspiracy the whole town is involved in, or an unknowable cosmic entity?Unsolved has BRAND NEW merch! Check it out here: http://bzfd.it/shopunsolved





	The Bizarre Town of Derry, Maine

**Author's Note:**

> I have not seen Chapter 2 yet but I have seen the mini-series and read part of the book. I had help from my pal Amber (@annemarle on Tumblr) who has seen chapter 2.

INT: BFU OFFICE

RYAN: This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we're covering the bizarre town of Derry, Maine. It is the sight of so many grizzly murders and missing persons cases, that it is often called the murder capital of the world.

SHANE: Isn't this that town where Bill Denbrough is from? The horror author?

R: We'll get to that, but we are also going to be taking a trip around the town at several key spots that tie into the mystery of the town.

S: Lovely.

R: Let’s get into it. 

  
  


_ [V.O.] R: The town of Derry, Maine began as a beaver trapping camp, and the town charter was signed by 91 people in the 1600s that vanished without a trace. There were rumors that the town had been attacked by native Americans, but there wasn't any sign. The only clue was a trail of bloody clothes leading to the Well House. _

  
  


_ S: of course these settlers blame it on native Americans _

_ R: the books about the history of Derry are so outdated that they call them  _ _ savages _

_ S: you had to read books for this _

_ R: yes, I did _

  
  


_ [V.O.] R: one of the women that lived in the town claimed that just days after the charter was signed and the people vanished, a man by the name of Robert Gray ate her baby in exchange for letting the rest of the town live. She, unlike the rest of the residents, believed that Robert Gray was the cause of the disappearances. _

  
  


EXT: 29 NEIBOLT STREET REMAINS

R: these are the remains of what was the Well House

S: did it get demolished?

R: in 2016, there was an earthquake that apparently only hit Derry and destroyed the building.

S: weird. Is this also where the ol’ Bobby Gray ate the baby

R: [wheeze] you can't just- yes this is where Robert Gray ate the baby. The woman said that his jaw unhinged like a snake and rows of sharp teeth emerged

S: Oh bullshit. That didn't happen.

R: what do you think happened

S: the guy killed her baby in front of her and she had a fucking breakdown

R: makes sense

  
  


_ [V.O.] R: in 1864, a gang called Derry Padrinos that was ran by Confederate sympathizers shot 120 people. 50 of the victims were children, while the other 70 were adults. Only 10 children survived, along with one of the adults. _

  
  


_ S: Jesus fucking Christ _

  
  


EXT: BENCH IN FRONT OF PAUL BUNYAN STATUE

R: it wasn't until 2016 that people actually started talking about Derry. Before then, it was like no one really knew the town existed unless they had a relative living here.

S: I mean it's a pretty small town, and every small town has its secrets.

R: don't you think it's weird that there was a situation like Roanoke that happened here and just got completely ignored? That there was a shooting with 120 victims? That's insane.

S: yes, I do think it's weird, I just don't think the cause is whatever supernatural thing you think it is. I think it's just a concentration of wackjobs killing people.

  
  


_ [V.O] R: In 1900, five policemen were killed by the same gang. 2 years later, every single member of the gang was found dead. _

  
  


_ S: that just sounds like the cops retaliated _

_ R: two years later? _

_ S: you gotta plan shit like that, Ryan _

_ R: you think police officers took 2 years to plan a raid where they'd murder an entire gang _

_ S: yes _

_ R: that checks out _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: just six years later, in 1908, the Ironworks Factory exploded on Easter and killed 102 people. Due to the lack of child labor laws, 88 of those victims were children that worked at the factory, while the remaining 14 were adults. _

  
  


EXT: EMPTY FIELD

R: this is where the Ironworks Factory was before the explosion

S: this grass is like really tall. It could swallow you whole.

R: what?

S: get in that field

R: no I'm not getting in a field so you can make fun of me for being average height you giant

  
  


_ [V.O] R: in 1935, the citizens of Derry all banded together to kill the Bradley Gang. After the massacre, no one was arrested and they claimed they had no idea what came over them aside from voices telling them to kill them all. _

  
  


_ S: the town just said "I've had enough" and killed them. Like that one guy that got shot in front of his whole town and no one said a thing _

_ R: of the Padrinos that got killed by the cops _

_ S: exactly _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: in 1962, a nightclub called The Black Spot was burned down by a white supremacist cult due to its popularity within the black citizens of Derry _

  
  


_ S: did you say cult? _

_ R: yeah it was like the KKK but they worshipped a shapeshifting clown spider god? It was really bizarre _

_ S: Nazis are fucking crazy _

_ R: yeah- _

_ S: I mean it's already established that Nazis are bad people and they have obvious issues, but like… a clown spider god that can shapeshift? What the fuck? _

_ R: [wheeze] _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: one rainy day in the fall of 1988, young George Denbrough, 6 year old brother of horror novelist and screenwriter Bill Denbrough- _

  
  


_ S: I KNEW IT _

_ R _ _ : shut UP _  
  


_ [V.O] R: George Denbrough had asked his brother to play outside with him. Bill had been sick with a cold, so he offered instead to help Georgie build a paper boat to chase in the street with the minor flooding. Georgie went outside to do just that, and an elderly woman reported to have seen him looking into a storm drain when she went out to bring her cat inside. She is the last person to see Georgie alive. _

  
  


EXT: STORM DRAIN THAT GEORGIE WAS LAST SEEN AT

R: this is where Georgie was playing when he went missing

S: what kind of fucking parents lets their six year old kid play outside alone in a rain that has any amount of flooding

R: it was the 80s

S: so?

R: good parenting then is considered negligence now

S: letting your six year old run around on the street in a big storm alone has never been considered good parenting

R: I'm not defending the Denbroughs parenting techniques

S: it sounds like you are

  
  


_ [V.O] R: several other children would go missing in the months following, leading into 1989. 13 year old Edward Corcoran, 13 year old Betty Ripsom, 15 year old Patrick Hockstetter, and his friends Victor Criss and Reginald "Belch" Huggins were all reported missing between November of 1988 to August of 1989. _

  
  


_ S: they called that kid Belch? _

_ R: local kids said that he was a bully that would burp in peoples faces, hence- _

_ S: [wheeze] he just… he would BURP in their faces? _

_ R: [wheeze] _

_ S: imagine you're a kid in Derry in 1989 and this dude just comes up to you and burps in your face and THAT'S what you call bullying _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: in August of 1989, 15 year old Henry Bowers killed his father by slitting his throat. The bodies of Victor Criss and Belch Huggins were found in his car outside the house at 29 Neibolt Street. Bowers was arrested at his home, returning to the scene of his father's murder. Police that were at the scene were furious about Henry murdering his father, who was one of their coworkers. The missing children, including Georgie Denbrough, and Bowers' friends Patrick, Victor, and Belch, were labelled murders, and Henry was convicted of them. He was admitted to Juniper Hill, a local hospital for the criminally insane, because he claimed that a clown named Pennywise made him do it. _

  
  


EXT: 29 NEIBOLT STREET

R: a lot of the massacres lead back to here, even the ones in colonial times

S: are you saying there was a reason Henry brought his friends bodies here?

R: I mean it all leads to here, that racist cult worshipped a shapeshifting clown spider, and Henry said that a clown made him commit murder. Plus, the people of Derry were talking about voices in the pipes of their house telling them to kill people

S: are you seriously believing that a fake clown god that racists worship is the cause of the fucked up shit that happens here?

R: it can't be a coincidence!

S: it's not! Henry Bowers probably was in the racist cult and he had a few screws loose and thought he was actually seeing the clown god he worshipped with the other neo-Nazis was telling him to do Its bidding.

  
  


_ [V.O] R: things seemed normal for the next 27 years until more disappearances and murders happened in 2016. At the Canal Days festival, a young gay couple were walking together. Adrian Mellon, an asthmatic, was brutally beaten in a homophobic hatecrime while his boyfriend watched in horror. He was thrown over a bridge that locals call "the kissing bridge" into the creek below, where he died. When police arrived at the scene the words "COME HOME" where written in Adrian's blood on the side of the bridge. _

_ S: did those homophobes cut him open and write a message to no one in particular in his blood? _

_ R: there is footage from police interviews with Adrian's boyfriend and the group that attacked them where they all say that after Adrian was thrown off the bridge, a monstrous clown ate parts of him and that's what killed him _

_ S: NOT THE CLOWN AGAIN _

  
  


EXT: KISSING BRIDGE

R: [runs his fingers over the R+E carving] this is the bridge where the Adrian Mellon hate crime occurred.

S: this is Derrys equivalent of carving names into trees

R: yeah [he points down to the creek below] that's actually where Adrian was found.

S: did the cops believe the clown story?

R: they found it odd that the boyfriend  _ and  _ the perpetrators claimed that a clown killed Adrian, but the investigation didn't include a search for it. They didn't bring the clown up during the trial, and it was ruled a hate crime.

S: if the clown did kill Adrian, and I don't think it was a shapeshifting demonic spider clown god, maybe just a John Wayne Gayce thing, why did he leave a message? Who was he telling to come home?

R: Bill Denbrough, comedian Richie Tozier, fashion designer Beverly Rogan, architect Ben Hanscom, and Eddie Kaspbrak.

S:  _ what _ ?

  
  


_ [V.O] R: following the Adrian Mellon hate crime, there were sightings around town of a group of 6 people that grew up in Derry. Mike Hanlon, who at the time was a librarian assistant, Beverly Rogan, Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom, and Eddie Kaspbrak. The group met up together at local Chinese Restaurant the Jade of the Orient. Locals and workers claimed that the group were childhood friends, and they seemed to just be catching up in a private room. _

  
  


INT: PRIVATE TABLE AT THE JADE OF THE ORIENT

S: this is some really good Lo Mein

R: this is actually the table that the group ate at

S: a bunch of childhood friends grow up, four of them are celebrities, and they come back and catch up at this very table.

R: a waitress said she walked in on the group freaking out rather violently. Mike Hanlon reportedly threw a chair at the table.

S: what?

R: yeah and then, when the group was leaving a young boy named Dean walked up to Richie because he was a fan, and apparently Richie flipped out and shouted "I'm not afraid of you"

S: [laughs, hitting the table] he screamed at a  _ child _

R: [wheeze] imagine you run into a celebrity you admired as a kid and they just scream about not being afraid of you

  
  


_ [V.O] R: in Atlanta, Georgia, an accountant by the name of Stanley Uris was found dead by his wife Patricia. He had committed suicide in their bathtub, leaving letters addressed to the group of 6 that dined at the Jade of the Orient.  _

  
  


EXT: SYNAGOGUE

R: Stanley grew up here in Derry. His father was the rabbi at this specific synagogue, and there was a memorial service held in his honor while Bill, Beverly, Richie, Ben, and Eddie were in town seemingly visiting Mike. The seven of them were childhood friends, though Eddie's wife Myra and Stan's wife Patricia reported that neither of them ever mentioned Derry during their relationships.

S: spooky

R: the letters that Stanley sent didn't get held as evidence because Patricia claimed that Stan had specific things to say to his old friends, and she wanted them to be able to know what it was he needed to say.

S: this whole thing is so depressing. Suicides and brutal hate crimes and children being murdered.

  
  


_ [V.O] R: the same young boy that had run into Richie at the Chinese Restaurant went missing while at the Canal Days festival. Dean was later found dead in the fun-house hall of mirrors. Witnesses reported that Bill Denbrough went inside the fun-house not long after Dean, and while he left, Dean did not. _

  
  


_ S: Bill Denbrough killed that kid _

_ R: [wheeze] _

_ S: he was like "I'm not scared of you!!!" And then he killed him _

_ R: Dean's parents told police that they had seen Bill shouting into the storm drain outside, then having a conversation with Dean. _

_ S: he was stalking him so he could kill him _

_ R: [wheeze] _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: a little girl named Vicki went missing during a baseball game that same week. She was later found dead under the bleachers. _

  
  


EXT: BASEBALL FIELD

S: you're killin me smalls

R: a small was killed

S:  _ a small was killed?  _ Did you just purposefully butcher a quote from Sandlot so you could make a pun about a little girl was murdered here

R: sorry

  
  


_ [V.O] R: Henry Bowers reportedly escaped from Juniper Hill that same week. He was spotted at the Derry Town House, the Inn that Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, and Eddie were staying in. Locals that had known them in the 80s claim that Henry and his friends would bully the group, that was called The Losers Club. Bowers' body would later be found at the library that Mike Hanlon worked at. He had been stabbed in the chest, and then killed by an axe to the back of the head. _

  
  


_ S: Henry killed Vicki, and attacked the Losers Club at the Town House and then Bill killed Henry after he killed Dean _

_ R: are you just trying to pin murders on him _

_ S: the dude needs to learn how to write endings! _

_ R: [wheeze] _

  
  


_ [V.O] R: Richie Tozier, Bill Denbrough, and Mike Hanlon reportedly left Derry never to return, as did Ben Hanscom and Beverly who would divorce her husband Tom Rogan and marry Ben. They were not investigated for any of the crimes that took place while they were here.  _

  
  


_ S: what about Eddie? _

_ R: he was reported missing the day the Well House collapsed. _

  
  


EXT: KISSING BRIDGE

R: during one of his recent specials, Richie Tozier came out as gay and had a bit about the kissing bridge. He carved this [points at R+E] when he was a teenager during the summer of 1989. 

S: is the E for Eddie

R: yeah, he had a long bit where he talked about the banter they had as children. A lot of people believe that his feelings were returned, because Bill Denbrough wrote a novel that was obviously based on him and his friends growing up in Derry, where the hypochondriac named Dennis Konbeck got married to the comedian named Ronny Thompson.

S: Oh I think I read that book. He dedicated it to The Losers Club, and there was a page at the back of the book that said "in memory of Eddie Kaspbrak and Stanley Uris".

R: yeah

  
  


INT: BFU OFFICE

R: let's get into the theories. 

S: I'm nervous about this

R: number one - the tragedies occurred, but the clown sightings were a collective hallucination.

S: This is you’re most sensible theory… and it’s first. Ryan I swear if this ends in--

R: This first theory holds to the idea that the town of Derry, Maine was held in a trance of collective hysteria. Instead of it being a gruesome clown that committed and encouraged the murders, it was simply the townspeople of Derry letting their imaginations get the best of them.

S: This… this makes sense.

R: Shane.. So you’re saying that it’s more reasonable that for hundreds of years the members of this community just imagined everything? That they all just woke up one day and said “hey, let’s commit some murder today.”

S: Ryan, we’ve literally covered serial killers and madmen. They, unlike murder clowns, are real and seen throughout history.

R: So the whole town of Derry is just a bunch of serial killers?

S: That’s not what I’m saying! But clearly--the Bowers kid, right? He was definitely crazy and he committed the murders in 1989. And if his family is from the area then it might be genetic. 

R: Let’s look at the evidence for this theory. Firstly, none of these atrocities were widely reported across the country, even though they were horrific both then and now.

S: Was this town even big enough to have a newspaper? 

R: [wheeze] Yes, they did. Which is another weird part of the story. I looked at some of the dates when these things occurred and what was reported in the news the next few days, and these things didn’t even make the paper. 

S: So… you’re telling me every so often dozens of children get murdered and everyone turns the other way?

R: It looks that way.

S: It was clearly an inside job.

R: All of Derry made a blood pact to keep being called the murder capital of the world, Shane? Really?

S: Well, it’s more likely than alie--

R: Okay. Theory number two, the strange and wild happenings in Derry, Maine over the last few centuries are the work of aliens.

S: You really just jumped right into this one, didn’t you? 

R: The theory is that an alien or aliens landed in Derry around the time settlers came here. Robert Gray is believed to have been an alien in this theory.

S: I absolutely hate this

R: They think he lived in the Well House and was killed by the Losers Club in 2016

S: Literally what the fuck. Let's think about this logically, okay. If you and your childhood friends fought a murderous alien that eats babies, would you or would you not acknowledge it and tell the whole world?

R: I absolutely would. I'd bring the Area 51 people there and say "the truth is out there"

S: I want to believe

R: I'm not saying Robert Gray was an alien, but I don't think he was human.

S: cannibals exist, Ryan.

R: Theory number 3, all the tragedies in Derry are coincidences and serial killers. This theory extends to the death of Dean and the disappearance of Eddie Kaspbrak, as some conspiracy theorists on forums believe that one of the losers murdered Eddie and they made a pact to keep it a secret. Bill Denbrough is often the one believed to have killed him because he was reported to be the last person to see Dean alive.

S: Bill Denbrough did it. He fucking killed them.

R: Some of the people that think it's all coincidences think that Eddie is alive and in hiding.

S: Oh shit?

R: Yeah, they think he was the one that killed Henry Bowers at the library, and he went into hiding so as not to get caught. In this version of events, the losers are going along with the scheme by acting as if he is dead.

S: Do you believe this?

R: No, I think that Eddie is dead, and his friends were there to witness it. His case is labelled as a missing persons cold case, since he's been missing for two years. But, the novel Bill dedicated to the losers with an in memoriam for Eddie and Stan was released in 2017, roughly a year after Eddie went missing. 

S: He probably just lost hope,  _ unless _ he killed him.

R: Locals that knew Bill in 1989 after his brother went missing claim that he was the only one that believed Georgie was alive, so unless he had solid proof that Eddie was dead he likely wouldn't have included him in the in memoriam.

S: I mean it was like 27 years later, right? He must have changed a lot.

R: Richie refuses to discuss what happened when they all went back to Derry, but when he returned to his home in LA he went through an obvious period of mourning where he spiralled into a depression. He had to have known for sure that Eddie was dead, and he probably saw it happen. If Bill killed Eddie, I don't think Richie would have agreed to keep quiet about it.

S: That makes sense, but I do think Bill killed that kid.

R: Moving on. Theory number four - you're gonna hate this one-

S: Oh I have a feeling I am gonna hate it.

R: Theory number four is that the shapeshifting clown spider god worshipped by the racist cult is real and has put Derry under a sort of spell and a cycle of violence, until the losers club broke that spell.

S: I'm gonna pull a Bill Denbrough and kill you in a fun-house hall of mirrors

R: [wheeze] hold on there's evidence for it-

S: NO! It's not real. There is no shapeshifting spider god!

R: The evidence comes from the connections between the tragedies and the clown sightings, as well as the Bill Denbrough novel we mentioned before. The novel is titled IT, with 7 main characters that are all obvious stand-ins for him and his friends. There are alterations to the events where the Richie and Eddie inserts run off together like Ben and Beverly did. 

S: The book that was like a thousand pages where they fought a shapeshifting spider alien thing that was the opposite of the turtle that carries the earth on its back?

R: I know it sounds like a stretch but it's also rooted in local native tribes. Someone that grew up in the tribe posted on a forum that prior to the events in 2016, Mike Hanlon visited to learn about a being referred to simply as It.

S: [wheeze] if you really think this thing is real then you think the earth is being carried by a cosmic turtle. How much crack do you smoke?

R: I'm not saying the turtle is real, I'm just saying the clown sightings can't be a coincidence!

S: that sounds an awful lot like you think the clown spider god alien is real, therefore you think the earth is flat.

R: [wheeze] no one- no one said the earth is flat!

S: If the earth is carried on a turtle's back then it's flat!

R: we're done here.

S: I think everyone was in on it.

R: Everyone in the entire history of Derry decided, up until 2016, to just never talk about the gruesome deaths and many disappearances here?

S: Yes! They are  _ all _ in on it.

  
  


_ [V.O] R: As of now, September of 2019, no one has been charged for the murders of Henry Bowers, Vicki, and Dean, or the disappearance of Eddie Kaspbrak. The investigations were declared cold cases just a few months after they were opened. No matter what theory you believe, many of the mysteries within this small Maine town will forever remain UNSOLVED. _

  
  


EXT: KISSING BRIDGE

R: this is like… really sad.

S: this whole fucking town sucks, I don't like it here.

R: it has bad energy

S: BAD ENERGY?

R: tell me this place doesn't give you the creeps

S: [deadpan] I am shaking in my boots

R: I hate you

* * *

**Richie Tozier ✅ ** _ @trashmouthofficial _

Never in the past few years did I think a buzzfeed employee would accuse my childhood friend of murder sjfhdkdj

→  **stream whoregasm ** _ @bitchboybaby _

Is this about BFU hskcudichsodn

→  **road work ahead ** _ @isurehopeitdoes _

The gay keysmash… your mind

→  **stream Trashmouth on Netflix ** _ @tozierstan123 _

Did you or did you not participate in an oath to keep your mouth shut about Bill being a murderer

**Beverly Hanscom ✅**

_ @bevmarshfashion _

Clown spider god…

→  **kesha owns me ** _ @haroldimalesbian _

the queen has spoken

→  **we are not the same person ** _ @trulygreg _

IS THIS YOU SAYING YOU'RE A BOOGARA DJCHDJCJ

→  **sugar what bro ** _ @sugargay _

What is this about I am confusion

**Ben Hanscom ✅ ** _ @architecturallysound _

My wife made me watch a true crime thing about the town we met in and all I have to say is that TWO theories are correct

→  **Peter Anderson ** _ @pa5271 _

Can you design my house

**Mike Hanlon ** _ @derryhistorian _

Can I PLEASE get verified bc they talk about me in Buzzfeed Unsolved

→  **Richie Tozier ✅ ** _ @trashmouthofficial _

@twitter help my boy Mikey out he deserves it

**Bill Denbrough ✅ ** _ @bigbill _

I did not kill anyone. Never have and never will. I mean, I once punched @trashmouthofficial in the face but no murder

→  **Shane Madej ✅ ** _ @shanemadej _

That's what a murderer would say


End file.
